CLS - Baby Car seat
 

Anyone using a baby car seat on their CLS? Could you provide feedback on functionality regarding the rear space and car seat location? Not sure if the CLS is a good fit due to the sloped roof and missing center seat for baby.

I've been using a baby seat in mine for the past 11 months (just took it out yesterday). It was a tight squeeze but it worked. The handle would sometimes catch on the headliner around the door and I had to have my seat more upright than I normally would.

The base didn't leave any indents in the seat either unlike our toddler's seat.

I've just put a rear facing seat in and I've got a feeling it's going to leave some nasty indents in the seat despite me putting about 5 towels in there to pad it.

When you're buying a toddler seat look for one with a narrow base (eg. Maxi Cosi Pria 85) fits in the seat a lot better and leaves almost no indents compared to something with a big base (eg. Britax Marathon). I had the Marathon in my car and it left some really nasty indents on the outer edges of the seat due to the base being hollow. I swapped it for a Pria 85 and the base sits perfectly in the 'bucket' of the seat and it's fine.

I'll provide my two cents. I bought the CLS as my daily and currently have a rear facing seat that will soon be used by my newborn and will be adding a front facing seat for my toddler. The space in the CLS with the baby seat is equivalent to just about any other car I have had (S4, E350, GS-F, X5, 550i,etc). I am 5'11 and do not have any issues with my seat positioned as I normally would while having a car seat behind me. My colleague who is 6'4 and heavy set did have an issue getting in because of the sloped roof but had no issues once seated. One important and obvious thing to note is that with a car seat you will only have two other seats in addition to the driver's seat. My partner's daily is an X5 with M package so we use that for ski trips or when we have additional people but we have no issues with the CLS when it just our immediate family.

Not the right car for rear facing seats
 

I'm going to chime in here, I absolutely love my car but hate how a car seat fits in it. We just had a baby girl and have a rear facing car seat. I would say this car is practically useless when a car seat is installed. The passenger seat needs to be almost all the way forward, and lift up. Any adult passenger will fit but most definitely uncomfortable, anyone even remotely tall would have knees pressed against the dash for sure. I am 5'9" and I would not want to ride in the seat for any length of a time. Also when inserting the car seat into the car you have to be careful to not hit the handle on the headliner.

On another note, Target sells a seat protector for spillage and crumbs but it is hard and will also prevent indents.

When I first had kids,08, I looked at the CLS, but ended up going with an E class due to the cramped nature of the back seats. Now they're bigger and have better fitting seats. But the carrier was going to be an issue with the roof and the shape of the CLS.

Maybe try it behind the driver's seat. I had the car seat behind the driver's seat and didn't have a problem and I'm 6'2".

Thanks everyone for the great feedback. Any issues putting strollers and other baby stuff in the trunk? It seems to me the trunk looks spacious, your thoughts?

Also, could you post your baby seat setup? I would like to get an idea on how practical\not. We're expecting our first baby next year and I'm not sure if the CLS will cut it for baby duty.

I can fit a BOB stroller in my CLS truck :)

There's plenty of space for all that stuff, the trunk is deceptively large.

If it's going to be your only baby duty car then it probably won't be all that fun, especially when they move up to the bigger rear facing seat as I'm finding now. Trying to put my son in the rear facing seat in a tight parking space isn't all that easy and the seats are so big that you have to pass them through quite a small space to get them into their seats.

We have an SUV that is used 90% of the time for bussing the family around as it's infinitely easier to throw the kids and all their crap in.

I'll try and post some pics later.

The CLS will be our backup car (my car), the wife has the big GL550, and space would not be a problem on that one. My concern is that I don’t want to exclusively take the SUV with the baby, if the CLS is not Baby practical

Sounds like the same situation as us. I think you'll be fine.

Fonzi03 https://mbworld.org/forums/images/cu...s/viewpost.gif is right about the rear facing seat however I think there are a lot of cars with the same issue of having to put the front seat way up to make room for the rear facing baby seat. I have two children myself and its also worth noting the seat belt clips are way down low in the seat (they don't extend out a bit like many other cars), not only that but the metal part that plugs in has a slight angle on it rather than being straight. This makes it very difficult for children using booster seats to buckle themselves in. I continually have to help my 6yr old get it plugged in.

True words! I have to help my 5yo get the buckle in due to the cramped seat.

You guys have any suggestions on baby car seats?

Not necessarily a suggestion on a car seat but just a bit of advice - make sure you take note of the shape of the base. We've got one that has a narrow, centered base which fits perfectly in the rear seats on the CLS and we've got another that has a really wide base that just cut into the seat and put some nasty indents in the leather.

Where did you get the narrow seat ?

It's a Maxi Cosi Pria. No idea where we got it from though.

Search on amazon for "child car seat protector". There are a lot of protectors to choose from. We had these in my wife's car for a few years. Not only do they protect the leather but they also catch a lot of food crumbs.

I just put one of those seat savers on mine, it's a harder material which distributes the pressure of the base more evenly so it won't dent the seat. Works flawlessly.

If you don't mind, which one exactly did you use? Also since I'm shopping for car seats, do you have any recommendations?

I have two in my car, evenflo maestro booster seat. (Blue) and graco size4me 65. Graco had narrow enough base that sits in the seat. One of the britax we had was too wide like someone commented. What’s nice is the harness booster seat have enough leg room that I don’t get kicked in the seat like before, about the same size leg space as we have in our Lexus RX suv.
https://cimg1.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.mbw...70430dd40.jpeg
https://cimg6.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.mbw...bbd6b646f.jpeg

The seat saver is from Target ~$30 absolutely worth it.


As for the car seat we went with babytrend be ause it was rated well for safety and the jogger stroller was awesome.

Thank you, I will look into it since we have a evenflow stroller. May end up going with that so I can only carry once stroller around. I like the graco one, do you know by any chance if the evenflow you have can fit evenflow strollers? Thanks. Fonzi I'm also looking up yours as well.

the evenflo is a harnessed booster, so it doesn’t face rear or offer that much seat tilt. I don’t think it would go on an evenflo stroller, at least not the one we have.

Im impressed with evenflo, it’s half priced but seems to do everything the big manufacturer do. Just a little less refined.

I see, do these have bases that can be easily detached from when I want to take my infant out?